[lojban-beginners] Re: [lojban] Re: Lojban neography

[Matt Arnold <mattarn@123.net>]

A friend has allowed us to use her Messyboard for this:
http://www.messyboard.org/netmouse/

> The glyphs are way too complex: Only l, r, i, o and ' are reasonably
> simple in that system.
It can't be done. There are only so many paths for the pen to take without lifting.
And it doesn't need to be; none of them, except perhaps x, are more complex than many English cursive letters such as lower-case f, j, g, and z. In the glyphs of the Latin/Roman typeset alphabet look at the g, capital B or capital H, each with three recognizable hand movements. People constantly put curlicues on capital cursive letters. Consider the @ character that we handwrite in e-mail addresses all the time.

> And the zh symbol looks like an ass.
So does cursive capital E. Everything looks like something until you're used to it.

> E and A are too similar.
I'd like to improve that. Perhaps the a should be bisected by a very straight line with hard corners at top and bottom like the Greek letter Phi.

> The displayed sample lacks /y/.  Since the
> principles for vowel construction are not clear,
> I have no suggestion how that might go.
This is a top priority. Of course it will have to go under the line.

> No, I mean, since you use a space as a required pause, not as a word
> separator, how do you indicate *obligatory* stress?
Excellent point. I like what Bruce says:

>It would also be nice to allow for words to be denoted - perhaps a flat
>line on the baseline. That way the pen does not have to be lifted, but the
>letters would be grouped. That might also solve the stress denotation
>problem.
A flat horizontal place could be a stress word break. Or would it be better as the period?

-Matt


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